


Christmas Eve Collision (of Siblings)

by angel



Series: Neal Hughes [7]
Category: White Collar
Genre: Car Accidents, Christmas Eve, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-10-02 16:47:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17267759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angel/pseuds/angel
Summary: After the Hughes Christmas Eve Party becomes overwhelming, Neal and Michael take a drive to get some air and collide with a person from Neal's past.





	Christmas Eve Collision (of Siblings)

**Author's Note:**

> Surprise! I'm only a few days late with a Christmas Neal Hughes fic :D Special thanks to pooh_collector for reading this over for me before I posted. Happy Belated Holidays and Happy New Year to all!

After two years of spending Christmas together as a family, the Hugheses went back to hosting their annual holiday party. Cathy went all out with decorations but they were tasteful in her classic elegant style. There was a large Christmas tree in the living room, and the mantle held two ceramic trees, two poinsettias, and the five family stockings. Garland and white lights wound up the staircase bannister, and a host of other small touches brought the holiday spirit into every room. 

Frankly, Neal was surprised by the lack of FBI agent attendance. There were a few, including Kimberly Rice, who he'd politely greeted, offered a glass of wine and was otherwise avoiding, but most people either lived on the block or were family friends.

Reese and Cathy had told him to invite whomever he wanted, but Peter and Elizabeth were spending the holidays with her parents, and Mozzie was out of the country. Not that he would be caught alive or dead at a Suit party. 

Neal spent some time mingling. Almost everyone wanted to chat, but it was exhausting answering the same questions for each person. Eventually, he slipped upstairs with a full glass of wine to get some peace and quiet in Michael's room.

His brother had run interference for him with several of the guests who asked too many questions, but Michael had his own fair share of 'where's your girlfriend?' and 'when are you planning on settling down?'. 

As if she knew he was feeling overwhelmed, his phone chimed with a new message from Emma. She was having dinner with her girlfriend Steph but would be home before the end of the night. 

_Emma: Doing alright at your first Hughes family spectacular?_   
_Neal: No. People ask too many questions_   
_Emma: Can't blame them for being curious_

He made a face at his phone. She didn't understand how awful the night had been. 

"Hey," Michael greeted, startling Neal as he leaned against the door jamb. "People are starting to ask about you."

Neal groaned and then took a long drink of his wine.

"That bad huh?"

"Is it too late to jump out the window and make a run for it?"

Michael laughed and reached into his pocket to pull out his car keys. "We're adults. We can use the front door."

"Spoilsport." 

~~!!~~ 

The car was quiet for several minutes while Michael navigated the stoplights to get them out of the immediate neighborhood. Neal watched the people on the sidewalks, bundled up in winter coats, hats and scarves. It wasn't snowing but it was cold out, and the forecast was calling for a white Christmas in the morning.

Neal finally turned to look at his brother and asked, "Are the holiday parties always like that?"

"Like what?"

"A million questions, a lot of people coming up to you to ask if you remember who they are, a lot of people in the house?"

Michael laughed softly. "Yes, for the most part. Not necessarily the second one because Emma and I see Mom and Dad's friends every year, but they do ask a lot of questions. They're old school, so they expect everyone to be married by 20 and start having kids. Very few of their own children have actually done that, so I suspect they ask them the same questions."

Neal sighed. "How antiquated."

Michael just shrugged and eased the car to a stop at a red light. "Emma used to get it worse than me because she's a girl, and there are certain expectations in the older generations' minds about young women. But she always stood up for herself and told them she was perfectly happy with her personal life."

"Good job, Emma," Neal said, smiling at the thought of his petite sister standing toe-to-toe with some of the people back at the party. 

Michael chuckled. "How are things at work?"

"Busy," Neal replied. "Mortgage fraud after mortgage fraud. What about you?"

"Also busy. There's always criminals to track down, even during the holidays."

Neal nodded. "When I was on the run, I was most paranoid during the holidays, I think. It seemed like a bad time to let your guard down."

"We keep eyes and ears out for activity. There are quite a few Marshals that are married to their job so there are plenty of people to man the office."

"Case in point?" Neal pointed to his brother and raised an eyebrow.

"I took the night off."

"Just the one night?"

"Tonight and tomorrow night."

"I rest my case."

"I'd rather work the holidays so the Marshals with families can spend that time with them, but I always take Christmas off." He was quiet for a moment and snuck a glance at Neal before saying, "It was always hard on Mom and Dad. Christmas without you. They tried to keep up appearances for me and Emma, and it worked for a few years, but then we saw how sad they were."

Neal looked away, out the window, at the bustling city outside. It was dark though, which meant that sometimes his own image or that of Michael was reflected back at him. He caught his brother giving him another glance. 

"I'm sorry," Michael apologized. "I shouldn't have said anything."

"It's okay. It's not your fault, or mine. It just is what it is."

Michael nodded and they both fell silent again. 

Eventually, Neal couldn't take it any longer. He turned on the radio and found a station playing classic Christmas songs. They both sang along with the parts that they knew.

"Where are we going?" Neal finally asked. Michael seemed to be taking an aimless route, making turns every now and then but without any specific reason. They'd circled two blocks so far from the right turns alone. 

"Nowhere in particular. It was too cold to walk around outside, and we both needed a break from the fogeys. Do you have a destination in mind?"

Neal pondered that for a moment. There were a million places he'd like to go, but he had a radius to consider despite being in a car with a Marshal. He was about to suggest looking at the various light displays and holiday decorations around the area when the car was suddenly thrown to the side as another car hit them right behind the passenger door.

They spun around a half turn until they were facing the direction that they'd come from. Neal's ears were ringing, and his head and neck ached.

"Are you okay?" Michael asked from somewhere to Neal's left. "Neal?"

"I think so," he managed to say. "What happened?"

"Someone ran the red light and hit us. Stay here. I’m going to check on the other car."

Neal took a deep breath and took stock of his body. He was starting to feel more alert as he reached a hand up and gently touched the side of his head where it hurt the most. There was blood, and he groaned when the slight probing sent a sharp pain through his brain. 

He left the head wound alone and slowly rotated his head to check his neck for injuries. It hurt but was most likely whiplash. He'd had it before after a car accident when he'd been a teenager. 

Other than the headache and the whiplash, he seemed to be okay. That was good news, at least. He wondered how Michael's car had fared in the accident so he unbuckled his seat belt, pushed the car door open, and stood. 

After letting the wave of dizziness pass, he saw that there were two women standing beside the car that hit them, a similar four-door sedan to Michael's car. They looked uninjured for the most part, except there were some bruises and what looked like slight burns on their arms from the airbags that had obviously deployed on them. 

"I'm so, so sorry," he heard the darker haired woman say. "I didn't see the light until it was too late." 

The other woman stepped forward, and Neal recognized her just as she said, "Neal Caffrey?"

"You two know each other?" Michael asked, curious.

"She testified at my trial. Against me." 

"You stole a painting insured by Sterling Bosch for several million dollars!"

"Allegedly!"

"Where is the Rafael?"

"I'm not going to talk about the painting."

Michael moved in between them and put his hands up. "Time out! Everyone take a deep breath." He waited until they did before he held his hand out to the woman. "Michael Hughes."

"Sara Ellis," she said, shaking his hand. "This is my sister Emily."

Emily still looked shaken by the accident, but she raised her hand and gave a small wave when she heard her name. 

Neal leaned back against the car and watched Michael take charge of the scene. He'd never seen his brother at work before, and while this wasn't Marshal business, it was still interesting to watch him in action. 

In very short order, the police, a tow truck, and an ambulance had arrived. Neal agreed to be checked out by the medics while Michael was giving his statement to the police.

That's how he found himself sitting in the back of the ambulance next to Sara. 

"Are you okay?" he asked her to distract himself from the pain while the EMT prodded at his head wound.

"Bruises and airbag burns. I'll live. You?"

He shrugged and hissed when the EMT poked a little too hard at his head. Then, there was a light shining in his eyes, and he lost track of Sara in order to answer the EMT's questions about the date and the President.

Within a few minutes, Michael was standing outside the open back doors of the bus, and he looked worried. "How's he doing?"

"And you are?" the EMT asked as she finished feeling Neal's neck for injuries.

"He's my brother," Neal spoke up. "You can discuss my health with him."

The EMT nodded. "He appears to have a concussion and probably some whiplash. The cut on his temple is superficial but still bled a bit. We'd like to transport him to Mt Sinai to be on the safe-"

"No," Neal interrupted. "I'm fine."

"You have a contusion and cut on your head from impacting the side window of your car. I strongly suggest you let us transport you, sir."

"No," Neal repeated.

Michael sighed and climbed inside the bus. "Can I talk to him for a minute?"

The medic agreed and moved outside to give them some privacy. 

"I'm not going to the hospital," Neal said before his brother could speak.

Michael was quiet for a long moment, watching Neal closely. "I would feel better if you were checked out in the ER. I'm sure Emma and Mom and Dad would feel the same way."

"I can't believe you're guilt tripping me right now."

"Is it working?"

Neal looked away and sighed. "Is your car drivable?" 

"It is, but you'd get seen faster if you take the ambulance."

"Pick your battles, big brother." 

Michael laughed softly. "We get our stubbornness from Mom's side of the family, you know."

"That's surprising. I would have guessed Dad's."

Michael helped him out of the ambulance and took charge again from there, telling the medics that he would take Neal to the ER and telling the waiting officer that Neal would be by the station in the next couple of days to give his statement. Then, he got Neal into the car and headed for Mt Sinai.

Neal leaned his head back and tried to rest on the way to the hospital. He put his hands in his pockets, trying to hide their post-adrenaline rush shaking from Michael. There was something in his pocket, and he pulled it out to find Sara's business card, which showed that she worked in the Recovery Division at Sterling Bosch. He didn't know how she'd slipped it into his pocket, but he knew what she wanted, and he had no intention of ever telling her about the Rafael.

The brothers mutually agreed to wait until after Neal had been examined to tell any of the other Hugheses about the accident. The wait wasn't too long, though Neal suspected that Michael got impatient and flashed his badge at someone, but soon enough Neal was diagnosed with a mild concussion and whiplash, prescribed some painkillers and a muscle relaxer, and sent on his way. 

One of these years, the Hughes family was going to have an uneventful Christmas. Neal really hoped it would be next year. 

~End

**Author's Note:**

> Some of the dialogue was taken from Unfinished Business. I didn't want to give away the Sara surprise by putting this in the earlier notes. Also, while this verse does break from canon during Point Blank (S2E9), I'm also disregarding the Sara appearances prior to Point Blank because this is an AU, and it's taken me this long to figure out how to include her. Hope you enjoyed her introduction in this verse!


End file.
